Warning: Affiliate and sponsored links appear in the following post. Although shopping the embedded links won’t cost you any additional dollars, it might mean that I download a few extra audio books this month. Your support of my reading habit is always appreciated!
At the end of July, I was up to thirty books for the year. I’ll admit to thinking I’d be way ahead at this point, but it’s been slower going than I expected. Part of me thinks that having a goal has been more hindrance than help, but I’m determined to finish the year strong either way! After a pretty dismal July, I’m proud to say I have my reading mojo back. I might not have tackled ten books this month, but I’ll consider these four a win. Josh worked so much this month and the kids have been exhausted from their return to school and dance, so I’ve found myself with ample time to read.
I’m using the following scale, courtesy of Goodreads, to rate the books I’ve read. I should probably warn you that I like almost everything I read. I love stories and being transported to a new place, so when books provide a plot I can get lost inside, I almost always like it. It’s much harder for me to love or hate something. When you see a single star or five stars, you’ll know I had a strong reaction to something one way or another.
1 star // did not like it
2 star // it was okay
3 star // liked it
4 star // really liked it
5 star // it was amazing
1. GLORY OVER EVERYTHING BY KATHLEEN GRISSOM // 4 OUT OF 5 STARS
Glory Over Everything is the sequel to The Kitchen House (my very favorite book of the year), which I reviewed in June. It tells the story of Jamie Pyke, son of both a slave and a plantation master, who has a deadly secret that compels him to take a dangerous journey through the Underground Railroad. The story begins with Jamie living as a white man in Philadelphia and chronicles his journey to acceptance with his heritage. Although this is a stand alone novel, having read about the previous generation of characters, I thought the story was richer and more easily understood.
Shortly after reading The Kitchen House, I had several friends tell me that the follow up was even better than the original. I couldn’t imagine Grissom could come anywhere close, but I added it to my “to read” list and eventually downloaded the audio version. Although it’s set many years after the first volume, the characters fill in the missing years with a series of memories and flashbacks. It’s told from the perspective of three different characters, two of which you’ll remember from The Kitchen House, and I loved each of their stories. I was thrilled to find out what happened to my favorite characters later in life and those stories were closely entwined with new characters and new histories. Jamie’s character is one to cheer for. As he battled hard truths and an unknown future, I thought his character became more and more endearing. This is certainly a must read, but it didn’t come anywhere close to unseating my favorite book of the year!
2. MISSING, PRESUMED BY SUSIE STEINER // 2 OUT OF 5 STARS
Missing, Presumed was one of my most recent purchases from Book of the Month. It was billed as a procedural police thriller meets family drama. Manon Bradshow, a middle aged detective of the Cambridgeshire police force, is tasked with finding a high-profile missing person, Edith Hind. The story unfolds from multiple points of view — a fellow detective, Edith’s best friend, her parents and finally, from Edith herself. Clues found lead the police to believe Edith was murdered and as various potential killers come in and out of the story, you begin to piece together what actually happened.
I wouldn’t say the book was slow, but it definitely didn’t qualify as a page turner. It was steady, building the story as it went, moving in a completely linear time frame until the very end. There wasn’t any second guessing and I wasn’t ever confused about what happened when. While I did love Manon, and later a few other ancillary characters, I wasn’t drawn to Edith and I honestly didn’t care if the mystery was ever solved. Her parents seemed cold, her boyfriend uninterested and her best friend unnecessarily hysterical. I thought the story of Manon’s love life and struggle with relationships was far more interesting that the main plot line. I never considered putting the book down, it wasn’t bad, I just wasn’t as invested as I’d like to be. I was hoping there would be a major revelation at the end that would make up for the slow start. Even though there were a few surprises and a somewhat twisty ending, by the time I got there I just didn’t care.
I’m not sorry I read it and it definitely had good moments, but I’m not sure I would recommend it to a fellow reader.
3. AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED BY KHALED HOSSEINI // 5 OUT OF 5 STARS
This book was my selection for this month’s Collaboreads like up. You can read the full review here!
4. ALL THE UGLY AND WONDERFUL THINGS BY BRYN GREENWOOD // 5 OUT OF 5 STARS (with so many caveats)
Have you ever read a hard book? A book you loved and hated in equal measure? I need to tell you that I don’t want to review this book. I’m afraid that no matter what I say about it, someone will throw stones. I loved it, but that doesn’t mean I loved everything about it. It was beautifully written, but that doesn’t make the story beautiful.
As the daughter of a drug dealer, Wavy knows not to trust people, not even her own parents. It’s safer to keep her mouth shut and stay out of sight. Struggling to raise her little brother, Donal, eight-year-old Wavy is the only responsible adult around. Obsessed with the constellations, she finds peace in the starry night sky above the fields behind her house, until one night when her stargazing causes an accident. After witnessing his motorcycle wreck, she forms an unusual friendship with one of her father’s thugs, Kellen, a tattooed ex-con with a heart of gold. By the time Wavy is a teenager, her relationship with Kellen is the only tender thing in a brutal world of addicts and debauchery. When tragedy rips Wavy’s family apart, a well-meaning aunt steps in, and what is beautiful to Wave looks ugly under the scrutiny of the outside world.*
What is billed as a “beautiful and provocative love story” isn’t exactly. From the very beginning of the book, I loved it. Greenwood does a fantastic job of weaving the story of Wavy’s life through many perspectives. Unlike other books, this one incorporates not only main characters, but seemingly inconsequential ones who come in and out of Wavy’s life. You see these ugly and wonderful things from her own perspective, but it’s sometimes more interesting to see them from characters who are aren’t as integral to the story.
“I thought about how he left spaces for me when he talked. If I saw him again, I decided I might put words in those spaces.”
Without spoiling too much of the book, you need to know that Wavy and Kellen have a relationship. Not just an emotional one or a familial one, but a sexual one. Their connection was strange right from the start and I’ll admit to being completely entranced by the storytelling. I loved Kellen’s character and he was the first person in Wavy’s life to care for her in any way. He made sure she was fed and dressed and attended school and she owes every measure of her success to his love and protection. On the flip side, she was an eight year old girl who didn’t have a chance at a normal life. She was a child who pressed him for a sexual relationship at the age of thirteen and was later devastated because of their separation. As a mother of two daughters dangerously close to eight years old, reading this made me feel all kinds of upside down inside.
This was a story of hardship and of redemption. I want to give it a 5 out of 5 rating, because it was just that good. The writing is beautiful, the storytelling is hypnotic, the characters are so real. It was definitely a page turner (I read this in a single sitting) and I loved how the book ended. Every single thing about the final chapter was perfect. I wish one thousand times that she hadn’t grown up as quickly as she did, that Kellen would’ve been able to separate his love for her from his responsibility to her, that their love story had happened in the right time. This book is equal parts amazing and terrifying — read at your own risk.
*Excerpt from the book jacket.
This brings me to thirty-four books for the year, so far, meaning I need to read just over four books a month to reach my goal for the year. I still have quite a stack of unread books on my desk, but with a few audible credits waiting to be redeemed, I need some suggestions. What was your favorite book of the year? Is there something you’ve listened to recently that you can recommend? I’m looking for a “page turner” with a fantastic narrator!
